Necromancer Sect

About

Though their intentions and goals are noble and good, the means by which Necromancers seek to fulfill those ambitions more often than not become quite twisted and evil. Practitioners of Necromancy all at some point become stricken by the allure for what the doctrine of Anubis promises. That being the promise of eternal life for them and their loved ones.

The pursuit of necromancy starts off ever so simply. One learns the means by which they can restore a beloved family pet to life. They witness how much love and joy is returned to the lives of their family and friends. Then after suffering brutal loss of life, they start to ask, why wouldn’t this work for their child, or spouse? The conclusions often drawn when the processes inevitably fails is that they just didn’t have enough knowledge at the time. Surely the next attempt will be better. Their desire to attain success in this one task becomes so profound that soon enough they find it easy rationalize the murder those who stand in the way of their progress. The end results they pray will justify the means.

Typically a Necromancer’s power comes from the pursuit of arcane knowledge via conversing with the spirits of the dead. Thanks to the Geist Effect, the world has no shortage of phantasmal entities willing to make dark contracts with those who know how to solicit them. While these dark forces legitimately offer intense power things never seem to go quite the way the Necromancer hopes they will.

The value of a Necromancer might vary wildly based on how driven they are to pursue their passions. They might range from the lowly half hearted hobbyist, upward to the highest ranking elites who wield incredible influence and power over entire fiefdoms. Each has value to furthering the ambitions of their necromantic overlords, the Lich.

Origins

The Necromancer Sect finds its origins in the twilight years of the Pioneering era. When the mummified alien entity was recovered from deep space and eventually resuscitated. This seemingly benevolent entity had advanced knowledge of just about every possible schools of research, and whats more if gave of it freely. This creature quickly became the center of attention to the pioneering age societies. Everyone, from commoners to nobility, fell head over heels to gain favor with this arcane being.

The knowledge this creature provided led to a massive technological boom to occur between the 7 Pioneer Ships, whose populaces became ravenous in their desire to further their technological prowess. Eventually though, whispers were heard of a power that made all of their previous advancements trivial at best. The followers of Anubis where quick to record and spread this forbidden knowledge throughout the 7 starships, though they felt compelled to keep the information hidden away from the ruling officials, security forces.

After the fall rumor spread that it was the Aegis Security Forces that were at the root of the disaster. This led to countless bloody conflicts to erupt among the surviving populaces. In the decades that followed, three powerful sects of Necromancy managed to come to power. This happened in spite of the efforts of the Dragon Kin, the first born of the Royal Families who ruled in those days. They sought to incinerate every forbidden tome of the heretical Anubis in existence to include the acolytes bearing them.

In the early years the three schools came to blows. They butted heads quite fiercely with one another, each claiming their interpretation to be the true form of Necromancy. This period of the world became known as Crimson Age. It was a time when millions of lives were lost to pestilence, strife, and the continuing horrors of the Geist Effect. Not to mention the innumerable genetic monstrosities rampaging across the land, freed from their prisons aboard the former Pioneer Ship laboratories during The Fall. Most of the city spanning graveyards found throughout the world today have their origins in this period.

Inevitably it was a Lich who would eventually reveal that the three sects were mere facets of the same one school of magic and should not be used to war against itself. These three sects soon after came to be known as the necromantic classes: Dominus, Recreo, and Servus. Every Necromancer and Lich tends to specialize in at least one of these three powerful schools. Necromancers tend to have a strong affinity to at least one of these three sects of Necromancy. Whereas the Lich's skill sets a more balanced combination of the three.

In the end no matter the skill level or preferred school of practice, Necromancers should never be approached without regard for the intense dangers they pose to those who might impede their research.

Inner Council

Back when the Necromancer Sect's infighting was at it's greatest a tremendous amount of loss of life was occurring daily. Necromancers would commonly go about with genocidal experiments that had to be repeated over and over again by those who were turned down from being offered a share in the knowledge. These sorts of practices lead to countless fiefdoms being brought to total ruin. The massive city spanning graveyards that dominate much of the landscape are sad testaments to this dark period of time.

Eventually it came to pass that a single Lich going by the name Baulter became fed up with this insane series of events. Though he was looked down upon by the ranking elites of his order for specializing in the Dominus Sect, he was so skilled in his specialization that he had the power to dominate even the wills of other Lichs.

Through this power he led a campaign against his own people that didn't end until he saw the elites of the the three Sects executed or bent to his will. Through his coercion he formed what later became known as the "Inner Council of Necromancers". They were to cooperate in their efforts of spell crafting and the gathering of natural resources. Together they carved up the remaining fiefdoms amongst themselves to run them as a shadow council. Only a handful of the highest ranking among the necromancers have any clue of their existence and even fewer know of their locations.

Baulter became known as the first ever Lich Lord who operates from his seat of power within the Palace of Tombs, seemingly irreverent of the daily activities the acting government conducts within Gavreel City. His role seems to have become that of a null stone. Moderating the meetings of the Inner Council and ensuring they remain focused on those goals of greatest importance to their order's progression.

While there is a high degree of distrust among the Elites of the Sects, things for the rest of the world eventually calmed down enough to allow them to begin a period healing. Rebuilding their ruined villages, replenishing the ravished population, and the start the arduous process of taming the haunted frontier lands.

Though they were so against it from the start, the Inner Council found that the progression of their twisted agendas improved radically. They now meet willingly to share resources and exchange their findings. The Lich Lord broods upon his dark throne where he contemplates the value of what little remains of mankind.

Necromantic Sects

A Necromancer excelling in even just one of the three primary sects of Necromancy is capable of dealing an incredible amount of damage to the world of the living. To do so though, would leave them vulnerable to a wider range of threats from within or externally. The Lich typically have had such a ludicrous amount of time to study all three sects that most Necromancers still in their first century of life seem laughably naive. There has however, been a few rather ingenious exceptions.

Dominus Sect

Dominus class Necromancers primarily deal with the control/enslavement of the undead. Their craft grant them the ability to dominate just about any form of undead forcing it to obey their every command. It is primarily considered to be a combat style of necromancy, where the undead serve as champions or proxies for their lords in battle. Some Necromancers prefer to have their undead do all of the fighting for them while others prefer directly participating in combat while utilizing their minions as support classes.

The Dominus School of necromancy is one of the most dangerous lines of research for neophytes to cut their teeth on, as all forms of undead pose a serious danger to the living no matter how meek they might appear. Depending on their strength of will there is a very real potential that any failure on the Necromancer’s part could result in they themselves being added to the ranks of the undead.

The Dominance sect is oddly enough the one sect of necromancy that grows much easier to perform as the years wear on. As one gains experience and mental fortitude it becomes much easier to gauge the potential aptitudes of newly encountered undead, allowing the Necromancer to more seamlessly transition toward an ever more powerful entourage.

The risk of failure drops considerably when one knows their upper limits in this field. Failure to dominate high ranking undead becomes less of an issue when ones host of bodyguards are on par with the entity their seeking to dominate.

Dominus Necromancers tend to branch off into one of two styles of combat, “Champion” or “Wolf Pack”. The Champion Style focuses on a small number of exceedingly capable undead guardians, where as the Wolf Pack style focuses on numerical superiority over individual quality.

The Lich, being as long lived as they are, tend to have great proficiencies with both styles keeping exceedingly dangerous undead bodyguards close by while also commanding armies of the dead. Recently the “Wolf Pack” style of engaging enemies has fallen out of favor with many a Lich, who in their later years deemed the methods to be too “flashy” due to the style’s potential to reveal their locations to their enemies.

Overall Necromancers who specialize solely in Dominance tend to be looked down upon by members of the Inner Council as many believe the skill set does not directly aid in the advancement of the cults true agenda. That being, the pursuit of immortality. The irony though, is that most council members are proficient in the use of Dominance to one degree or another. It is more that some consider it to be too easy a path to power that is too limited in its end game scope.

The most powerful of Dominus Lich wield incredible twisted monstrosities as easily as though they were trained dogs. Some can even command the will of ghosts, entities considered by many to be among the most dangerous and unpredictable forms of “wild undead” one might encounter in this dark world. Practitioners of the Dominus Sect should be avoided at all cost.

Notable Dominus Necromancers...

Lich Lord Baulter

Dancing Morbis

James Walker

Recreo Sect

The world of a Recreo Class Necromancer revolves around the pursuit of perfecting the spell of “Resurrection”. It is primarily a knowledge based class with little direct combat potential, though it tends to be the primary sustaining battery the Lich use to wage war. A Recreo Necromancer primarily concerns themselves with learning how to regenerate dead tissues. Some fancy themselves flesh sculptors and have introduced the world to a host of terrible nightmares.

Dominus class Necromancers tend to develop symbiotic relationships with Recreo Necromancers. The Recreo’s skills prove invaluable when it comes to repairing and advancing the strength of a Dominus’ minions. Where the Dominus’s skills prove essential to preventing accidents when Recreo’s are attempting to raise untested forms of undead whose potential powers and natural instincts could prove to be, unpredictable. Many an overzealous Recreo has met their demise at the claws of an abomination they didn't have the skill to control once they were activated.

The Recreo Sect of Necromancy is one that is easy for neophytes to start up but as the practitioner’s abilities peak it becomes excruciatingly difficult for them to make advancements in their field alone. This rather brutal difficulty curve leads most Recreo Necromancers to one of two unique branches. The first and most common style being, the pursuit of True Resurrection. Most career necromancers got their start in the field by seeking restore their lost loved ones. It is considered the noblest of pursuits by the Inner Council and even the most ancient and callous of Lich still attempts to crack the code of its casting from time to time. To date though no one Necromancer has ever mastered this spell. Sooner or later they all give up on this pursuit and branch out to the second style of the Recreo Sect.

The second most and probably most infamous of the Recreo Sect’s two styles is the pursuit of weaponizing the dead, or “flesh sculpting”. One might suspect that this skill set would be the more dangerous of the two practiced by Recreo Necromancers but you would be wrong. Attempting to resurrect a loved one has led to more Necromancer fatalities than any other practice known in Necromancy.

The reason for this occurrence is due to how life like resurrected loved ones can be, making it difficult to tell if the process was a success or a failure. Far too many a Recreo Necromancer has attempted a perfect resurrection only to be slain by their loved one once their undead hunger manifests. Most usually this occurs after they’ve attempted to settle back into their old life together while their guard is down. The resurrected will just snap one day out of the blue due to some unforeseen stimuli that sends the resurrected off the deep end and tearing into their creators throats. The more perfect the resurrection seems the longer it takes for the hunger to manifests, but it never fails to do so.

One of the most difficult aspects of a Recreo Necromancer's practice is finding a steady supply of fresh ingredients to experiment with. Long dead rotting material tends to have limited scientific value. For the best results living samples are an absolute must. To this end many Recreo Necromancers craft autonomous “gatherers”, whose single minded goal is to go out and bring in fresh supplies. Though they are intended to gather the recently deceased all too often these deranged entities will just opt to attack the living and make them into “recently deceased”. The controlling Necromancer, who often feigns ignorance, asks no questions as to how their minions always seem happen upon the freshest of cadavers.

Overall Recreo Necromancers are considered to be of great importance to the other two classes and are looked upon with great favor. The most skilled of them are showered with wealth and resources in order to boost the benefits the other two classes receive from their lines of research. The most powerful and long lived of Recreo Necromancers tend to become Lich over time due to the precision they use in maintaining their own bodies and fighting the decay of age.

Notable Recreo Necromancers…

Alexia Garlind

Reinhardt Garlind

Alex Walker

Servus Sect

Though it was a Servus class Lich who united the three sects, secretly all Servus class Necromancers consider themselves to be the superior of the three sects. Servus Necromancers are considered to have an even potential for combat and knowledge. Their most defining trait is that they commune with the spirits of the dead to gain arcane knowledge of the inner workings of the universe. The trade off being that they have to enter into a pact with various phantoms to order to gain more knowledge and energy to fuel their new found arcane abilities. This can range from small offerings of blood to full blown bodily possession. It all depends on the level of power being desired by the Necromancer at the time.

Servus Necromancy is a dangerous school for neophytes to start a career in. The secret knowledge gained through pacts with the dead is highly addictive, a Necromancer with no restraint will keep offering more and more until they have given their very souls over to the twisted desires of the macabre. Every time a human soul is touched by a spirit of the dead there is a sort of energy transfer. A portion of the vast energy that comprises a human soul is drained into the dead who in turn imbues the practitioner with phantasmal energies by which they can use to affect the physical realm through their own will.

If too much energy is drained from the living they will be sucked dry and upon death become possessed by every spirit they have ever come in contact with. This most usually leads to the creation of Possessed Dead or Demi Lich. Normally a great deal of time is required for a person's spiritual energies to restore themselves after a run in with a specter. This time can be cut down with special meditation techniques, herbal medicines or other powerful narcotics and venoms. Unnatural spiritual restoration can lead to a diminished overall potential to their pool of resources causing many to misjudge their upper limits. Restful sleep is often the best solution for a drained soul.

There are literally no limits to a Servus Lich's potential information gains. Some examples of knowledge that could be gained include... divining future events, learning new methods for controlling the dead, learning new ways of controlling the environment (such as weather control), knowledge concerning locating lost items or people, controlling the minds of the dead, controlling the minds of the living, learning new methods to increase one's life span, and much, much, much more.

The greater the information gain desired the greater the drain on the living's soul. The combat potential for a high ranking Servus necromancer is massive. There are many special forms of energy attacks that can be cast once the knowledge has been unlocked. Some are as simple as fire balls or ball lighting though some can summon meteors from the stars or have the very earth itself swallow their opponent’s whole. The more powerful spells of course require a much greater commitment from the communing phantasms.

Living Necromancers typically cannot house more than one or two low level spirits in their own body at a time and must swap them out to gain different types of knowledge or power. It’s unpredictable as to what knowledge one specter might hold versus another. When one is found with a style to the liking of the Necromancer they will typically not let them go; for once a phantasm returns to the void it's almost impossible to track down the same spirit again.

The most powerful of Servus Lich can house between 40 to 50+ high level spirits, at such levels the energy potential of an individual could be on par with that of an atomic bomb. Where living Necromancers rely on their soul's energies as a twisted form of spectral currency the Lich rely on their very will to live. It is why Servus classed Lich tend to constantly be on the move finding new subjects to occupy their mind at all times. Should their inspiration diminish even a bit it could affect their will to live and damage their potential to keep the gnawing phantasms within in check. While it is a rare event that a Lich should overstep their upper limits and become consumed by their phantasms it has been known to occur. Such twisted abominations tend to go on a rampage destroying everything in their path until their energy potential is drained, the human soul within burned to cinders.

In as much as the Ghost and Specters are unpredictable so too are the Servus Necromancers that wield them as weapons. Because of this there are no known consistent branches of style practiced by the Servus sect of Necromancers. It is impossible to plan ahead for all possible outcomes when facing one in combat.

Overall powerful Servus class Necromancers are often looked upon with great regard and are often paid tribute by other Necromancers in hopes that they will bestow some of their arcane knowledge upon them. It has become all too common for powerful Fief Lords to have at least one Servus Necromancer serving “under them” as an adviser in order to better maintain their hold on what few lands they have. Though more often than not Lords are unaware of their servants’ necromantic inclinations and not all servants have their Lords best interest in mind.